Gerantius Imperial Knight

This was a really nice piece to paint from a colour point of view – I get a lot of commissions to paint Imperial Knights as I’ve noted previously, and I’ve never been asked to paint an ‘official’ version of one until now….

The Knights are a really good kit from Games Workshop, and I love the heraldry – I’ve got a lot more projects lined up with them so keep an eye for those in the future!

Anyway – the Gerantius Imperial Knight was split into three elements for building and painting. I built the skeleton and fixed this to the base, then cleaned up the plates and mounted these on some blu-tac and cocktail sticks, and did the same with the two weapon options.

I started with the skeleton – I primed this in black using Vallejo polyurethane black primer, making sure I hit the model and base so that everything was black. I then painted the skeleton using Gun Metal by Army Painter through the airbrush to get a nice quick and even coverage. As Gerantius is an ancient Imperial Knight, I went for a greasy look to his skeleton to reflect the years of service he had given the Imperium. For this I used Secret Weapons Armor Wash through the airbrush on a very low PSI setting – this is a quick way of shading the armour and doesn’t leave too many splashes!

Next up were the details around the armour, like the eyes – I painted these with Averland Sunset (GW) and highlighted with Sun Yellow (VGC) and dotted with white – this gave a nice glow effect.

I tackled all the plates next, following the colour scheme on the back of the Imperial Knight box, as well as online resources.

I primed the plates with Vallejo polyurethane grey primer and once this had dried, proceeded to do the gold trim. I did the gold by basing with Balthazar Gold (GW) through the airbrush on a low setting, and then highlighting with Greedy Gold (AP). I washed it with Nuln Oil (GW) and left it at that.

The plates themselves were then painted by brush, ensuring not to leave any marks. I used Kabalite Green (GW) for the lighter plates and Incubi Darkness (GW) for the darker portions. I black lined all the plates with Nuln Oil to add some depth, then highlighted the Incubi Darkness with a line of Kabalite Green. I highlighted the Kabalite green with Livery Green (VGC) although I would have used Sybarite Green (GW) if I’d had any.

I did the Gerantius heraldry with the transfers from the additional Imperial Knight transfer sheet available from GW, and prepped the area with satin varnish. I used Micro-set to prime the area and then place the transfer. Once all was completely dry (at least a couple of hours) I then added another coat of varnish to seal the decal and hide any raised areas.

I painted the weapons and chainsword as above, and metal was done with Gun Metal (AP) and washed with Nuln Oil.

The base was made with cork, so on completing Gerantius I went back and touched up any overspill so it was completely black again. I then chose to dry brush with The Fang (GW), followed by a dry brush of Fenris Grey (GW) and finally a drybrush of Wolf Grey (VGC). To finish off I washed the whole base with Agrax Earthsade (GW) and added some sand where the cork was absent.

I hope you like my version of The Ser Gerantius Imperial Knight – let me know if you have any questions or comments!